He had given little thought to Eli over the course of the recent fighting. All his attentions had fallen on the war that faced them. Their relationship appeared to rapidly be returning to that of Officer and NCO, which it always had been, although she still looked at him with a yearning when he wasn’t aware of being watched.
The last of the light faded away, and the temperatures quickly plummeted. The exoskeleton suits regulated their temperature and kept them comfortable through the night. They could only imagine the freezing conditions the other troops had to endure. They had long been well equipped with the most advanced of cold weather equipment, but they knew it was high unlikely that any of it had reached the front line.
“I bet Schulz is sitting comfortably in the warm with his feet up,” snarled Taylor.
Chandra smiled at Mitch’s condemnation of their superior. She knew he had every right to be bitter. As they began to finally enjoy the peacefulness of the night, the sky erupted with a flash of light that was quickly followed by the far off thundering of artillery. Shells whistled overhead towards Ramstein.
The two officers leapt to their feet to look over the trench shelf and watch as the shells smashed into the enemy positions. They were too far to see what effect it was having, but they could make out the trenches bursting into flames. None of the troops cheered or jumped for joy, they were too numbed from the previous action. They thought of the brutal pounding they had taken from the enemy guns in the last months and wondered how much good it would do.
At midnight, the guns went silent to let the troops get what little rest they could, and deserved. Taylor sat cleaning his sidearm. Despite the little light they had, he knew it so intimately, he only looked at what he was doing out of the cathartic experience it gave. He could hear footsteps approach and snapped out of the daze he was in and quickly reached towards his rifle out of instinct.
Taylor paused as he recognised Eli and had a welcoming smile on his face. He felt his muscles relax and pulse slow as he moved his rifle aside to make space for her to sit with him. She relaxed down beside his shoulder so that he could feel her warmth, even through their clothing. It was a vivid reminder of the fun times they had shared back before the war.
For a moment, she didn’t say a word as he reassembled the weapon. In the dead of night each component put back in place was audible through the trench. Parker watched his hands move with such precision and disciplined muscle memory. She was fixated on it until he finally locked the slide shut and holstered it on his side. He turned to Eli and gazed at her smile.
Mitch lifted his arm and wrapped it around her. She rested her head down on his shoulder. He knew it couldn’t be comfortable resting on the straps of his body armour, but he appreciated the sentiment. Taylor looked up at the stars. It was a luxury that had been long forgotten, and the cloud cover the previous day had given him little opportunity to enjoy the night sky.
Chandra watched as Taylor and Parker fell asleep against each other in the trench, looking at them with a warm heart. It pleased her that in the middle of such bloodshed and near apocalyptic disaster, there was still time and room for love. She thought back to Friday, and the spark of feelings she had begun to feel for him; and the sorrow his death had brought.
For two days the Company held put in the tree line. They were well supplied, but it was a painstaking waiting game. The artillery roared throughout most of the daylight hours, and the infantry sat uneasily awaiting combat. They watched as the base, they’d recently known as home, was flattened by their own forces.
On the morning of the third day, Chandra awoke to Blinker tapping her on the shoulder with the field phone in his hand. She rubbed her eyes as she yawned and took it from him. Taylor woke and stood up, waiting to hear their orders. She listened carefully for a few moments and put the phone down, looking up with a sigh.
“It’s time. We’re going over the top.”
Taylor smiled at her reference to the First World War. The fact they were only a few kilometres away from the bloody battlegrounds was a vicious reminder of how brutal a war could be. Taylor remembered documentaries which had calculated death tolls in their tens and hundreds of thousands, but it was never something he could ever fully comprehend. Now those horrendous numbers had meaning to him. Every single digit of those vast numbers now meant something to Mitch. He realised that each one was someone like himself, Eli, Chandra and the rest.
“Form up! Form up!” she yelled.
The Company hadn’t removed their equipment since setting up in the trenches, and their bodies were sore and creaky. They began to stretch and groan as they readied themselves to begin the assault.
“When do we advance?” asked Taylor.
Before Chandra could respond, they heard German techno music pulsate from huge speakers fitted on tanks concealed within the forest. Their engines roared to life, and the vehicles instantly lurched forward towards the battered ruins of Ramstein. The raucous music made the troops’ ears vibrate, and it was a brutal way to begin the morning, but it certainly got their pulses racing and their blood boiling.
Chandra leapt up out of her trench and down on the edge, looking down on the troops. They stood silently waiting her orders; as the music made them angrier and blood hungry. She could see that other infantry companies on their flanks were readying themselves, and she could make out Reitech suits scattered throughout.
“For once, we go forward together! We lost France after a bitter fight, but this is the only ground the enemy has taken in Germany. For you marines, Ramstein is US soil, so would you let them keep it? We have turned the tide of this war, and it’s now our job to seize this opportunity and drive them back to the sea!”
She got no response from the troops, but she knew they were each readying themselves for combat in their own way, and her words were coaching them along. A loud whistle blew out to the north, shortly followed by infantry clambering out of their trenches and continuing on after the advancing armour.
The first enemy artillery rounds were already striking the open plain, and Chandra watched. She turned to the Company and lifted her rifle into the air.
“Let’s give those bastards hell!”
They cheered as they leapt from their trenches and took to a quick jogging pace. Up on their feet, and closing the ground fast, they could begin to see the devastation their guns had rained down. There was barely a wall still standing in the eastern half of the former US Air Force base.
Light pulses surged towards them from the entrenched Mechs, but in lesser number than they had expected. Motor rounds from the advancing tanks continued to pound the Mech positions and limit their fire as much as possible, until they got within eight hundred metres of the positions. Chandra quickened to catch up with the armour, and as she closed within a kilometre of the trenches, she activated her jump pack.
“Jump!” she screamed.
The Major felt her stomach queasy as she was launched into the air at an immense speed. The others leapt into the air after her. As she reached the apex point above the enemy, she rained down fire on full auto until she quickly began her descent. Fear overcame her, as she descended at high speed towards the enemy and wasn’t sure if she would slow down. She didn’t know what she feared more, crashing to the ground or landing among the enemy.
“Shit!” she screamed.
As she thundered down to earth, her boosters kicked in and rapidly slowed her descent. She targeted the nearest Mech that was lifting its cannon towards her, and fired three rounds down into its head and shoulders. She had no control left of her landing point, crashing down onto the body of the creature as it was still keeling over and disappearing into the trench.